Aid cuts and abuse deal double blow to LGBTQ+ African refugees

• Asylum seekers told to get out - and fast
• LGBTQ+ refugees hit by abuse and aid cuts
• Being gay in Africa 'like committing a crime'

LONDON - Samuel has moved countries twice in three years in search of safety - each journey a flight from the discrimination and violence often meted out to LGBTQ+ people in East Africa.

And now the 28-year-old Ugandan is being pushed to move on again - only this time he is running out of faith in escape routes after swinging aid cuts ended the support that has so far kept him safe.

"The whole situation has been terrifying," Samuel, who asked to use a pseudonym for his safety, said by phone from the Gorom refugee camp, which lies close to South Sudan's capital of Juba.

Samuel is one of hundreds of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender asylum seekers who now face heightened violence because of global cuts to aid and refugee programmes across East Africa, charities and aid workers say.

President Donald Trump's decision to freeze foreign aid and gut the U.S. Agency for International Development on resuming office put strain on refugee services worldwide.

But LGBTQ+ refugees say they feel doubly penalised by the freeze as they lose out on key support and are also targeted by fellow refugees and the local community, facing stigma and violence in the relative 'safe haven' that is a refugee camp.

"These days are very tight since the natives have found out we're around and it has put us in a lot of fear," Samuel said.  

"We're staying indoors most of the time and we're hardly getting food."    

Samuel's odyssey

In 2022, Samuel fled his native Uganda - home to one of the world's toughest anti-LGBTQ+ laws - after his family found out he was gay. In fear of abuse, he crossed the border, seeking refuge in the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya. 

Once deemed a relative sanctuary in a hostile region, Kenya last year stopped processing asylum claims and exit permits for LGBTQ+ refugees.  

Samuel and other LGBTQ+ refugees in Kakuma were therefore advised by camp organisers to move on, so in January 2024, they once more made for the border, this time crossing into South Sudan. 

Now anti-LGBTQ+ attacks are on the rise there, too, and Samuel says he feels too scared to leave his tent at night.

"Government officials have come at least six or seven times, chasing us, saying they don't want us in Gorom, that the host community doesn't want us in their homeland, and we have to go to Juba," Samuel told Context.    

No protection

The U.N. refugee agency said it was aware that South Sudan had asked LGBTQ+ asylum seekers to move from Gorom to Juba, and that it would provide legal support to those who do so.

Devon Matthews, head of programmes at U.S- and Canada-based Rainbow Railroad, which helps LGBTQ+ people relocate, said most people they had helped in Gorom had already moved to the capital, as security in the camp had worsened. 

As of November, requests for help from South Sudan had risen 97.62% compared to last year, the organisation's data showed.   

"(LGBTQ+ refugees) have been told their protection as LGBTQI individuals is not guaranteed in the camp, given there are ongoing threats and risks of violence."

John, a 22-year-old gay man who fled Uganda in 2021 in the face of homophobic abuse from his religious father, fears that leaving Gorom for Juba will only expose him to more danger.

"Whenever we go (to Juba), we get arrested just because we are Ugandans. And if they get to know that you are LGBTQ+, we might get attacked," said John, who asked to use a pseudonym.           

Finding safety

LGBTQ+ refugees have long experienced discrimination and danger in camps across East Africa, and those chasing a better life were often disappointed. 

South Sudan already hosts hundreds of thousands who fled war in Sudan, its own peace remains shaky after a five-year civil war and the country's food supplies remain tight. 

"What we thought would bring us safety was wrong. We got here only to find it is worse than Kenya," Samuel said. 

"There's no education, no free movement, poor housing. We are living in a very, very bad situation."

Resettlement on pause

Nor is the West offering much in the way of a refuge.

Trump's decision to freeze refugee admissions has hit LGBTQ+ Africans hard, with the president capping all refugee admissions at 7,500 in 2026 - the lowest ever.

Other popular options for resettlement - such as Britain, Canada and Germany - are tightening their rules for asylum. 

Samuel and John both underwent resettlement interviews on arrival at Gorom camp, but the process then fell apart. 

"Due to Trump, everything stopped," said John. "Looking for other countries is very difficult. In Africa, being LGBTQ+ is like committing a crime."     

No way home

Laws curtailing LGBTQ+ rights are also spreading across Africa, experts say.

This year, Burkina Faso and Mali moved to criminalise homosexuality, and Ghana resubmitted an anti-LGBTQ+ bill that lawmakers approved last year but which never became law. 

Lawmakers have also pushed for anti-LGBTQ+ bills in Kenya, Senegal and Liberia. 

Uganda enacted its own stringent anti-homosexuality law in 2023, mandating the death penalty for repeat offenders.

"It is very dangerous for any LGBTQ+ person to return to Uganda in its current environment," Ugandan activist Frank Mugisha, told Context. 

"Ordinary LGBTQ persons are getting beaten and violated when they're just living their lives."

Yet Samuel, for one, longs to return home, where he was studying social work and clean development. 

"For now I dream about evacuation from here," he said. "[That would make me] the happiest person."    

(Reporting by Lucy Middleton; Editing by Lyndsay Griffiths.)